Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
EUA effective 11 December 2020
- Authorization time
- 311daysOfficial
#1 of 3 · Fastest COVID-19 vaccine authorizations
Health & medicine · Ranked by authorization time
Fastest COVID-19 vaccine authorizations in the World (2026)
This list is one federal clock. It counts days from February 4, 2020, when the Secretary of Health and Human Services's section 564 determination took effect, to the day that product's first emergency-use authorization took effect. 2020 was a leap year. The sources print the two dates. The day count is the subtraction, written in the note, and it is what the list ranks. Lower is a shorter authorization.
3 rankedA source on every row
3 COVID-19 vaccine authorizations, ties share a rank.
- 1Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
EUA effective 11 December 2020
311days - 2Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
EUA effective 18 December 2020
318days - 3Janssen COVID-19 vaccine
EUA effective 27 February 2021
389days
Pfizer-BioNTech is 311 days, effective December 11, 2020. Moderna is 318 days, effective December 18, 2020. Janssen is 389 days, effective February 27, 2021. Each end date is the date in that product's Federal Register notice, in CDC's MMWR, and on FDA's archived authorization table. The start date is the Secretary's own notice, which the later authorization notices repeat.
The clock is not days from a genome release, and it is not a claim that one laboratory was faster. Genome repositories do not share one first-public day, so that start is not used. Three rows stay under the index gate.
The lineup · 3 on file
Meet the COVID-19 vaccine authorizations
One card per entry, with its headline figure and where it ranks.
Spot a wrong number?
Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.